"The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it"Aneurin Bevan

Thursday, 28 July 2011

I'll cut the NHS and raise the deficit

It was inevitable, but now the figures are out: Cameron has cut the NHS. The Financial Times reports:

"Treasury figures show the NHS spent £102bn from April 2010-April 2011, almost all of which took place when the coalition took power. This marked a £750m real-term fall from the previous year, something Mr Cameron repeatedly promised would not happen. ... Treasury officials pointed out that this spending had taken place under plans originally put in place by Labour. But under those plans, spending should have risen in real terms by £150m."

On the other hand the Conservative government is borrowing even more than the previous Labour government:

"A fall in tax receipts got the new fiscal year off to a disappointing start with public sector net borrowing hitting £7.7bn compared with £5.3bn in April last year."

Remember that poster: I'll cut the deficit not the NHS. Well he got it the wrong way round, in practice he cut the NHS and raised the deficit.